1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program and a device to manage a storage area network (hereinafter referred to as SAN), which links a plurality of servers and/or a plurality of storages using a fiber channel network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current computer system comprises a physical element such as hardware, and a logical element such as data area and memory address as elements constituting the system. However, the advance of communication technology has been making the relation of these elements increasingly complex with the expansion of a system environment caused by increasing the number of computers connected by networks such as the Internet, a LAN and a WAN.
Consequently, relation management software and system, expressing the connection between elements in terms of relation between these elements, have emerged (for example, Patent Reference 1, Patent Reference 2, Patent Reference 3, and Patent Reference 4). Here, the relation management means how such a number of elements are associated with each other.
As a method for managing a computer system, the method shown in FIG. 1 is commonly used. In FIG. 1, there are elements A (100), B (101), C (102), D (103), and E (104). The element A (100) and the element B (101) are the same kind of element, and the element D (103) and the element E (104) are the same kind of element. A group 1(105) consisting of the elements A and B, a group 2(106) consisting of the element C and a group 3 (107) consisting of the elements D and E are groups in the unit of collection of the same kind of elements. And the element A is linked with the element C, the element B is linked with the element C, the element C is linked with the element D, and the element C is linked with the element E.
In such a manner, a hierarchy is established by organizing the three groups. Here, each of the elements A, B, C, D and E has link information, indicating which of the other elements it is linked to. For example, the element A has the information that it is linked to the element C. The element B has the information that it is linked to the element C. The element C has the information that it is linked to the element A, the element B, the element D and the element E. The element D has the information that it is linked to the element C. The element E has the information that it is linked to the element C.
As the method for storing the association information of each element as described above, a method for storing all information on other elements associating with each one of the elements is used. In such a case, if the element A is linked to the element E via the element C, the element A stores the information on the element C and the element E, the element E stores the information on the element D and the element A, and the element C stores the information on the elements A, B, D, and E because the element C is relating to every element.
Patent Reference 1:
    Japanese unexamined patent publication bulletin No. 04-266249 (pp. 1-5, FIG. 1˜FIG. 9)Patent Reference 2:    Japanese unexamined patent publication bulletin No. 10-294731 (pp. 1˜11, FIG. 1˜FIG. 25)Patent Reference 3:    Japanese unexamined patent publication bulletin No. 11-340980 (pp. 1-11, FIG. 1˜FIG. 25)Patent Reference 4:    Japanese unexamined patent publication bulletin No. 2002-63063 (pp. 1-11, FIG. 1˜FIG. 10)
However, the method for storing all information of the other element associated with each one of the elements, described above, has a demerit in that the data volume, which each element carries, would become enormous as the number of total elements increases.
As explained above, the conventional relation management software only expresses the links between elements, and an effective method as means for managing the relation over a plurality of elements is not provided. To manage the relation over a plurality of elements, all information on the related elements is required to be held. Therefore, the information held by each element has enormous volume, which causes problems such as wasting a limited memory source and slowing down the processing speed by unnecessary loading.
On the SAN, the system for automatically detecting trouble location and for maintaining and recovering of the trouble location had not existed in the past, and in case of trouble, because it relies on manual effort, a large amount of work is required to recover the network.
In light of the above problems, the present invention provides a program and a device in which each element stores the minimum information for routing and searches the associated elements more effectively. The present invention further provides a program and a device, which facilitates maintenance and recovery of the device on the SAN.